"Madam Shen? Madam Shen!" Jing Yi hammered against the door, his heart once more beating crazily. The feeling had returned as soon as he left the room as if he had to fear being taken over once more after he left Qiu Ling's side.
Hong Ai opened her eyes blearily. She might have been a cultivator that didn't need to sleep anymore but she still enjoyed cuddling with her husband in bed so she hadn't gotten rid of having a few hours of sleep every night. Right now, she should be deep inside some dream so what was happening?
"Madam Shen!" Jing Yi's panicked voice came from outside again.
"One moment!" Hong Ai sat up and rubbed her eyes.
Shen An De got up, too, and hurriedly grabbed their robes. "That sounds like the dragon king's beloved."
"He's awake already?"
"He might have the body of a mortal but his soul is that of a god. It's no wonder he's able to process a spirit fruit this fast."
"But it's only been three days and he was barely in the root stage."
Shen An De smiled and helped her put on the outer robe. "You'd be surprised what the immortal races can do. Processing a spirit fruit in three days is nothing to them even if they are young. Descended or not he has most likely retained some of their attributes. The problem should just be that he doesn't remember."
"Then how did he ...?"
Shen An De shrugged. "Maybe it was subconscious. He wasn't awake, after all. We should see what he wants first."
Hong Ai nodded and went to open the door. "Jing He, come on in."
Jing Yi stared at her unkempt hair and paused. "I ... I'm sorry." He bowed, his bad conscience evident on his face.
Hong Ai just lifted her brows. "What is it?"
"I ... I just woke up and wanted to ask about that fruit. I completely didn't think about what time of day ... of night it is. I'm sorry."
"You don't have to be," Shen An De called from the room. "It was my fault you fell unconscious in the first place. It's the least we can do to receive you in the middle of the night to answer some questions." He sat down at the tea table and poured all three of them a cup.
Hong Ai smiled and grabbed Jing Yi's sleeve, pulling him inside before she closed the door. "Don't worry about it. An De and I are both of a higher realm. We actually don't need to sleep. It's just ... well, I guess I don't have to explain." She smiled mischievously but Jing Yi didn't understand.
He just looked at her puzzled, making her laugh.
"It's alright if you don't understand yet. You will when you're finally married." She sat down next to her husband and motioned at the seat on the other side.
Jing Yi sat down and took a deep breath. "I didn't want much. I just ... I saw something and I wondered if you could tell me more about what that means?" He looked hopefully at Hong Ai but she just picked up one of the cups and turned to her husband. "I guess An De can tell you more about that."
She hadn't asked him yet what his plans were even though she really wanted to know. She just trusted for the moment that it wouldn't be anything evil.
Jing Yi turned to Shen An De and bit his lower lip. "So, is there anything you can tell me, Grandmaster?"
"What did your fiance tell you?"
"N... Nothing much. Just that the things one might see were something that was hidden in your soul like ... a dream or ... something you want to forget."
Shen An De nodded. "That's the gist of it. Then what do you know about the Beguiling Night Tree?"
Jing Yi pondered but came up with a blank and could only shake his head.
"To make a long story short, it's a tree that came from the immortal realms. It's quite common there and doesn't have much effect on them. It's the same with high-leveled cultivators. That is why you were the only one affected by the fruit.
The first thing you should know about it is that the fruit contains a lot of spiritual energy. If you have a look at your own spirit veins, you'll probably notice that you rose at least a level." He stopped to allow Jing Yi to take a look.
Jing Yi didn't manage to do that though. He was still too agitated. Just breathing to calm himself down was impossible and meditating ... If he closed his eyes he would just feel that man's embrace again.
Shen An De frowned a little. He had just wanted to test if this so-called Son of Heaven still retained some memories but it seemed he was really troubled by whatever the fruit had shown him. "Well, you can always do that later."
Jing Yi nodded.
"About the things, one might see ... It's not completely clear what they are. Some say they are just hallucinations, manifestations of something the people who eat the fruits desire deep down. Others say they are apparitions of what is in our souls. Something like ..." He stopped and searched for the right words. "Maybe you could call it a manifestation of the inner self."
"The inner self?" Jing Yi didn't know much about that. His only time getting into contact with it had been when Qiu Ling was trapped in his. Back then ... the things he had seen were things that had happened to him and still occupied his mind. "But ... what if the thing you see ... isn't something that really happened?"
Shen An De tilted his head. "Your meaning is ...?"
Jing Yi bit his lower lip again. "I don't know much about the inner self but I was of the impression that you'd find things there that happened to you. Like ... my father died when I was still a child. I do think of it quite often so I would expect to see him or maybe even his death in my inner self. Isn't that true?"
Shen An De nodded. "That's about it."
"But what if, after I ate that fruit, I saw a person I had never seen before?"
Shen An De tightened his lips. His question had been answered: This god had no idea he had descended. He couldn't remember and Longjun had obviously not told him. Now the question was: Should he do it in the dragon king's stead?
"Grandmaster?" Jing Yi's voice got more pressing. He really couldn't go on without finding out at least something!
Shen An De sighed. "In that case, it might be a remnant of another life."
"Another life?"
The Grandmaster nodded. "If one dies, one reincarnates sooner or later. Sometimes there are remnants of that old life still in our soul. If there was nothing in this current life of yours that the Beguiling Night Tree's fruit elicited, then maybe it found something related to your last life."
Jing Yi took a trembling breath. So that person ... had been his lover in his past life? This ... He really didn't know what to think of it. He actually wished he hadn't found out.